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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   36912 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 22, 2024

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I suppose in this case I would say that it seems like the political symbol in question "deliberately skirts the border of comprehensibility."

Do you think so? I would say that the meaning is pretty comprehensible to both his allies and enemies even if it's obscure to neutral bystanders that aren't obsessive weirdos about things happening thousands of miles away. As one of the obsessive weirdos, I would certainly interpret the natural meaning as "this whole thing belongs to Palestine".

I would say that the meaning is pretty comprehensible to both his allies and enemies

Yes, certainly--but it comes with plausible deniability for those who are not allies or enemies, but merely useful idiots who parrot nice sounding slogans. In the now-locked boardgame subreddit thread, one user says:

Don't tell me it was just something like "to the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". The idea that that's understood as any sort of call to violence is pure fearmongering / gaslighting.

Which is gaslighting! The chant (and graffiti) in Arabic has for decades been "From the river to the sea, Palestine is Islamic/Arab." But people who don't know or appreciate history can say "oh, freedom from the river to the sea, how nice, I'm definitely in favor of that!"

If you know the watermelon represents Palestine (which I did not until just now), it is indeed pretty clear. If you don't, it's "why the hell is this guy wearing a watermelon?" I guess it's a true dog whistle.

I actually previously associated it with Green communists. I was amused to find that there is probably a lot of overlap between these people and the Hamas enthusiasts among the Western crowd.

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